During the Victorian era, society's extremely rigid social and religious expectations often dictated the behavior of citizens, especially that of women. In the male-dominated society, women were expected to be maternal and sexually pure, succumbing to the so-called “overwhelm” of their stronger, superior husbands, and anything divergent from this image was impermissible. Every form of female sexual expression was so condemned that it hinged on the moral battle between good and evil. Sexuality was considered a gender deviation - an act of departure from society's stereotypical views of masculinity or femininity - and was deemed unacceptable. At the beginning of the novel, Dracula, Mina, and Lucy are the embodiment of this ideal Victorian woman. Mina is practical and intelligent, and her main goal in life is to be a helpful wife to her husband, Jonathon Harker. Meanwhile, Lucy's physical beauty hinders her purity, reinforcing her sexual curiosity which ultimately leads to her death. Female sexual expression exemplified through the contagion of Mina, Lucy and the Weird Sisters in Stoker's Dracula was a threat capable of overwhelming the already established male-dominated Victorian society and, like any other gender deviation that departs from norms and destroys the social structure, was associated as an evil that had to be defeated. Mina Murray is a key example of the ideal Victorian woman because she embodies the virtues of the times, without ever questioning male prestige or her place in the community. The approval of her character is evident when Van Helsing praises Mina saying, “She is one of God's women, fashioned by His own hands for us men and other women where there is a heaven for us to enter... So sweet, so noble." ... middle of paper ... throughout history, gender deviations have been punished as much as they have been rewarded, and throughout Dracula's run, deviating from the stereotypical ideals of Victorian women was severely penalized. Because the novel indulges the male imagination, the only possible way for women to gain control in the male-dominated society was through sexual expression which was echoed in the vampire contagion. This threat to sexuality was considered evil, and men who participate in this moral battle manage to defeat it. The fate of Lucy, Mina, and the Weird Sisters after Dracula's overt seduction depended on their purity and innocence. Only the virtuous, like Mina, were spared because they were the embodiment of everything that Victorian males idealized. Women's ungovernable desires left men vulnerable to society's fall from grace, and they were unwilling to let it prosper unpunished..